Airtel DTH - Idea Inspired !!!

That was the original and now a latest Airtel ad by Rediffusion that is going on the air as of now.. Creativity is no doubt an art of inspiration and this guys here has done it so well.. I am for a change not being sarcastic since I love the way the idea is adapted... Its better than no idea at all.... !

Yeah the parent Idea belongs to some one else but the adaption here is creative... Someone who said the word "Hello" on the phone first time would have never thought he’d be so creative that the whole world to come after him would be copying him... now that is the parent idea that is being so blatantly used over and over again.... We accept it and yet we all to an extent hate copying isnt it?

Do we hate the people who copy ideas? We all do it...... This is in spite of the knowledge that kids learn their language by copying parents, their play by copying what they see in life ad TV, their moves in sports and fun by copying other kids. We learn to write better by copying writing we like..... we all do... Adapt as we call it but we do it... We learn to get along with people by copying people.

'Do your own thing as much posible' is what I think creatives should be doing.....Original stuff has its own value and don’t just copy any thing.....

As of now its good work ..Enjoy !!!

Airtel & Sharman Joshi - Baath karna baaki hai !

After 3 idiots, the scene has changed.. If Indusind bank roped in Omi Vaidya (Chatur for beginners ,if any), Airtel has taken in Sharman Joshi in what I would call as a brilliant move which but didn’t seem to be taking off… Brilliant because Sharman can easily be ranked amongst one of the most talented actors in Bollywood today. He tickled our funny bone with Style, Golmaal and Shaadi No. 1; played the high spirited guy in Rang De Basanti and then the rest is you know what !!!! Simply a dude with super cool attitude and effortless enacting of his fun of a role which made cinema goers sit up and take notice of him in 3 Idiots.

After having established a name as an actor, Sharman took the logical next step- brand endorsement. His first ever endorsement is for Airtel and when I read the story I felt a bit relieved that at last some fresh faces will now sell us this and that …. Tired of the old faces, I am sure people would feel great about new faces… Madhavan –the other actor in the 3 idiots trio, is also an endorser in his own style. Remember his romantic ads with Vidya balan… ?

When Airtel signed on Sharman, his immense popularity that he got after the roaring success of 3 Idiots was cited as the main reason and also the youthful and bubbly image that he has and which Airtel also wants to stretch to its young TG…. No wonder why the actor has been paid a whopping amount for the endorsement and soon after Airtel’s announcement came Nokia took him as well/ this time again with Adah Sharma ( who appears with R Madhavan in Joy Alukkas ads) as their latest brand ambassadors for their latest X series range…


The series so far has 5 ads .- Roaming, Night calling, Mobile internet ,SMS and STD services….see them here... But my trouble is not in the idea of Sharman, not even in the whole idea of “baath karne se hi baath banti hai”- talking only can make things work ( what an idea guys ooppsss sirji… ) I will give a standing ovation for these choices… My worry is that inspite of the guys next door boy looks, his boyish charm and the naughtiness, his mischief married with the plots the ads do not have the killer effect that they could have had if the creatives had pushed it a little more further..

The HERO convinces girls to YES him just by texting love quotes, sells 'his price' to a shop keeper by making him talk to his maaji, makes his dad agree to send him more money by emotional black mailing, again appeases his professor by praising his books on thermodynamics and hoodwinks an irate brother of his girl friend are all funny even though not very gulpable , just like that.. The ideas do not fully represent today’s guys true naughtiness and they don’t really and in total connect with the real guys of the real world ( who are these days locked in with the IPL matches and there are better ads that score well.. for instance) the yo yo guys are more creative, more convincing , more appeasing, more black mailing and more hoodwinking and you cannot even feel it…

They for sure are better than the Vodafone Zoo Zoo’s that have come back, the Idea Ungli chalao ads (from tree savers to fingering , Idea seems to have run out of ideas!..at a point I even thought that Idea will come up with 'Stop exams and save trees campaign'…!) .. Sharman and the Airtel ones stand out, but are they getting the place they deserve.. ? I doubt…

May be I am wrong and for a change I would be happy to be proven wrong!!!

As of now Airtel and Sharman is an awesome duo but we want more… because with a slight push you can give us that more… baath karna abhi baaki hai bhai !!!

Airtel- magic realism...

There is a kid in every one .. even in the most moronic of us… and the kid somewhere at some point of time would have done this … this self assuring phone call to his dad and its desired effect is simple and we all have done it, some way or the other and that makes this a good one….

Done by Rediffusion Y&R a new angle … the trust angle, which is a hygiene factor, is bought in to the Airtel communication which the agency believes and claims to be having a far more fascinating than the network angle… Airtel which shocks(often) the poor viewers with out of the world crazy stuff, often infected with an overdose of celebrity virus, comes down to earth some times, gets sensible and talk to us in simple terms and makes us smile.. smile in agreement.. this ad is one of them.. no big hungama,,,, no brouhaha , no quagmires and hardwork to some how fit in a parade of stars who at the end of the day outsmarts and outlives the brand…

Magic realism as someone called such stuff, this realization that with Airtel you are never disconnected is a subtle message that gets into the information cluttered minds in a passive way… Even though in my flat in the heart of the city, Airtel simply fools me by refusing to show signal, this conspicuously uncomplicated ad baffled me the first time I saw it…then the more I saw I fell in love… Virej Dasani the kid, has done a wonderful job by not acting and just living, and the guys who made it ostensibly didn’t try to cultivate any bogus innocence out of the boy… Kudos for that…

Kudos to the entire team…Ramanuj Shastry, national creative director, Rediffusion Y&R, Deepesh Jha, creative head for the script, Vinyl Matthew of Footcandles for the direction…. And others…

Let this ground sense prevail…..

Tailpiece: Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising........ Mark Twain

Read my other blogs also... Chickencurry & Confusion .....................

Airtel to Bharti...Jingoism rules !!!

When you stand for what you believe in you can change the world ......says the new Airtel ad….



It is a cool ad to watch no doubt and bit tickling the INDIANNESS in all of us but a closer analysis gives a feel of jingoism with which a brand, facing competition ( Airtel is still the market leader with a major percent of the share and closely followed by Reliance and Vodafone) launching a tirade ,proclaiming its Indian tag with a clear hint that the others are foreign or videshi and hence un trustable. Jingoism is good to hear and even wonderful to live in but odd to take on in your life. The implication that Vodafone is a videshi and so to keep away from it is simply a deplorable concept, not only because the ad comes in English (a videshi language) and the tie up with Wal-Mart (videshi again) that Bharti is so proud of but also because of the fact that old style, Ambassador car like be Indian, buy Indian nonsense will not make brands, any longer.

“Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all others because you were born in it” said George Bernard Shaw, and even that is not evident here where the typical Indianness to feel proud of the golden past because the present is bad, is evident… and in any case what did Airtel and Bharti for that matter give back to India and to its people to be proud of? To stand for and change their world?

It is good that big brands and first movers in a market slowly change their communication from we are also there to totally owning up their category. Heinz when it says have ketch up the world knows what they mean, they don’t have to say Heinz ketch up, same with Maggi… owning up the category is but a risk and you need to have the confidence of the category leader to be doing that, not just the fear and fright of an also player who is afraid of the other players and hence resort to jingoism. Airtel did start that journey but novelty suddenly gets lost to no mans land... ( see them here) with the famous “Deewarein gir jaati hain, faasle mit jaate hain, jahan do baatein ho jaati hain (Barriers break when people talk).” campaign which all said an done made some impact but lost that sheen with its agency change and this new one (Percept…. I am told) is nowhere taking the brand to the category leadership and that too when history is full of blood bath of leaders (read it as first movers who created the category) but lost out battered and badly bruised when others over ran them with innovation and better communication.

To quote Samuel Johnson, “Patriotism is the last resort of a scoundrel” and I seem to with difficulty agreeing with that statement when I see this ad. I agree that it is just my viewpoint and there may be many for whom this ad had engulfed them as a tour de force and evoked the Indian in them, for many this ad is would have been simply marvelous, still some would be completely taken over by patriotic emotions but for me it is plain jingoism born out of celebrated ignorance and a confused brand in the crossroads of its journey to leadership. Alas the agency, who should be the parent who should take the kid to the path, seems to be more confused.....

Airtel DTH.. enough is little !!!

"Doctor, are you sure I'm suffering from pneumonia? I've heard once about a doctor treating someone with pneumonia and finally he died of typhus."
"Don't worry, it won't happen to me. If I treat someone with pneumonia he will die of pneumonia only."

How clear right???

It is a fact that the charisma of a well-known persona helps in tiding over the difficulty of over-communication and clutter that is an issue for the marketer these days….It however is no easy route to success.. It if often discussed and even in adformula I have time and again deliberated in various posts about the ifs and buts and the uninvited brunt that this practice can have on the brand.

The theories like 'Source Credibility Theory, Source Attractiveness Theory and Meaning Transfer Theory' provide the foundation on which the whole celebrity endorsement business works and also explains how the process of the celebrity endorsement influences the minds of the consumers. Having said that it also has to be said that today it seems the theory have all disappeared because it is no longer the one celebrity for one brand thing that is happening.. it looks like the era of multiple endorsers for a single brand or brand variant has arrived…

To proove the point there has been many brands that offlate has been lining up a host of faces well known and the more seems to be the better...

See this one....



Madhavan and his smile, and Vidya balan and her homeliness and the ads that featured them in the past have made the headlines for all the right reasons..
The campaign did a stupendous job and why not .. they roped in the right people and the gel was right… right fit… almost perfect… but two is not enough … we need a herd of them goes the trend and the logic behind the multi starrer ads that off late is hitting the screens is simple…

Madhavan plus Vidya Balan is better than no known face at all , but imagine Madhavan plus Vidya Balan plus A R Rahman plus Saheer khan Plus Kareena Kapoor plus Deepika Padukone Plus Saif Ali khan plus …oofff…. I am exhausted…

Unlike the Hero Honda Dhak Dhak misadventure this one doesn’t put one off in spite of the profligacy that glares on your face the first time you see it…

It is an awareness ad for a DTH service from a Airtel… This is a new category for most of the viewers and hence confusing with a host of players and almost every ad looking the same . Clutter.. confusion and to add it the celebrities…

This one communication but is clearly a clutter breaker with the opulent parade of well known people and the craft with which the faces are woven into the script as if it is just natural… it is not an easy job and kudos for the effort… and also for standing out in the muddle….

Nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is too little goes the saying and how true if one sit and ponder....

The credits :-

Agency: JWT Delhi
Creative: Agnello Dias aka Aggi
Production House:Ramesh Deo Productions (RDP)
Director: Abhinay Deo
Music: Ram Sampath

Also read :-
Hire the star..Rent a bath tub..
Jyotika weds Surya...ahhaaaa...!!!!!
The Bermuda Triangle !!!!
Lights...camera..action....
Abhi, ash and all the cash!!!
Clinic All clear...Kiss of good bye !!!
Wow! Wow Sports Brands!

10 commandments of celebrity endorsements according to adformula...

1. Thou shall not take into service a celebrity, for want of other choices.
2. Thou shall not employ a celebrity, who is there, everywhere.
3. Thou shall not appoint a celebrity who is outdated/ controversial.
4. Thou shall not sign up a celebrity who doesn’t really connect.
5. Thou shall not hire a celebrity who lacks expertise in the category.
6. Thou shall not engage a celebrity because everyone else is behind him/her.
7. Thou shall not take on a celebrity, because the competitor has one.
8. Thou shall not assign a celebrity, every brand in your product mix.
9. Thou shall not utilize a celebrity without the advertising strategy in mind.
10.Thou shall not slot in a celebrity without a personality study of the celebrity and the brand...

Airtel.. from novelty to nomans land..!!!

I wonder ,would be there any one who have not loved this ad... and even went for the brand seeing it.. its power of communication.. and the sheer magic with which it hooked us as made us flabbergasted.. saw a wow.. now that is touching my soul and senses... and this one.... which was a sequel which still stayed good and enriching...



And this one with the Rahman magic, which was one rare ad which the folks wanted and see..again and again...shifted channels and reached channels where the ad is shown....



and now this one.... what can I say....you would have seen it and may be have got shocked by the sheer callousness with which the whole
advertising is conceived and made...If you have a celebrity, then any things seems to be ok,the market will have to sit and watch...


What a fall ... From class to crap.. from creatives to crass.. and the latest, from novelty to the no mans land ads....keep watching...!!!